Inside

We did not spend very much time working inside the house this summer. There were two projects on the main floor that we completed.
The most important event of the summer of the installation of a toilet. We have spend the past 9 months, since we bought the house, improvising in the bathroom department. You had two choices: hold it until you got back to town, or use the great outdoors. And when the girls were out at the house with us, it never failed. They always had to go. So installing a toilet became a must. The only problem with the toilet is location. We installed it in what will eventually become a powder room on the main floor. However, the powder room does not have any walls. So you are completely exposed from all angles. A word to the wise, check every direction first!!

From Briggs House Remodel

From Briggs House Remodel

The other big project on the main floor was replacing a beam in the dining room. The large beam above the entryway between the dining and living rooms had settled over the years and it was causing the floor to push down. Josh decided to replace this beam with a new one to help level things out. The beam that we put in was 14'x16"x3 1/2". It weighed a couple of hundred pounds. We actually had to use to separate beams that Josh and I nailed together to give them strength. Lifting it into place took the help of a drywall jack. That really helped make it easier.

From Briggs House Remodel

From Briggs House Remodel

From Briggs House Remodel

From Briggs House Remodel

There will be more projects coming up in the fall, now that the outside of the house is looking better. More on that next time...

Outdoor Work in the Spring

I have been very lazy in my postings this summer, so I am going to play catch up for the next couple of postings and cover all of the things that we have worked on from May up till now.
One of the first outdoor projects that Josh undertook was creating a lateral field for our septic system. Laterals are a way for the septic system to slowly and safely leach out into the land. Don't ask me to explain anymore than that because I really don't know how they work!
Anyway, Josh placed ours in the pasture west of the house. It was a huge excavation project that took several days. After the laterals were placed and back filled, we have a series of long furrows beside the house. Josh is still working on getting them smoothed down a bit.

From Briggs House Remodel

From Briggs House Remodel

From Briggs House Remodel

Josh also torn down the last of the small outbuildings. The last shed had a rotten floor and a nasty groundhog that lived beneath. Now the only building is the corn crib. After clearing the area, we planted grass and added more rock to the driveway. Tearing down the buildings really helped to clean the place up and make things look so much better.
Speaking of the driveway, there were some issues there that needed to be resolved. The tube under the entry was partially filled, which could cause some real problems down the road, so Josh took it out and replaced it with a new, longer tube. This also allowed us to widen the entryway, making it easier to back out of the drive.
The girls also got involved in the outdoor projects. They helped their dad put up a swing in the big Elm tree by the house. They love it and it provides some entertainment when they come out to the house to help.
My dad has also helped me to identify some the of the trees in the yard. The biggest tree by the house is a Slippery Elm. The other large tree by the drive and a smaller one near the road are White Oaks. We also have a Hickory which will have to come down because of its location. All in all, the land around our house is really starting to look well cared for.

Two Big Holes in the Floor

The latest project at the house has been taking down the chimney. We decided that the chimney was unnecessary to the house. The furnace will be vented elsewhere and removing the chimney will give us more room in the kitchen and the girls' bedroom. Josh took down the external section first and had to attempt to match shingles to the rest of the roof. They are a gray-green, not very easy to match, but he did his best. Then Josh worked from the top down, knocking each section of chimney apart and dropping the bricks on down the chimney. They formed a pile on the basement floor. Then he and a couple of friends bucketed the bricks out of the house. Definitely a labor-intensive project. Now we are left with two good size holes in the floor. As a result, the girls enjoy dropping things down the hole and can't play in the house alone until they are patched!
One highlight of the chimney removal was the excitement of a raccoon who was stuck in the chimney. He was stuck about halfway down and had to stay there until Josh could work down to his level and remove him. I wish I could have watched him try to get that really big coon out without being attacked!!!
BEFORE
Left: Girls' Bedroom Right: Basement

Left: Girls' Room minus Chimney Right: Kitchen minus Chimney

From Briggs House Remodel

Josh has also removed the interior walls in the basement. This opens up the area in one large space. He plans to use steel support beams along the ceiling for support to the main floor. Removing these walls will help level out some high spots in the floor; they were pushing up in the dining room and kitchen.
Later, many years down the road, we will create a better layout in the basement and make some rooms

Burn, Baby, Burn

So far, April has been a pretty slow month. Josh and I have finished most of the plaster removal. Josh has started tearing down the chimney, but there is not much that I can do to help with that. The girls and I have been out to see if we have any plant life. You can see the lines of a large flower bed in the yard, but it is terribly overgrown with weeds. It will be interesting to see what continues to appear this spring and summer. So far, I have been able to identify peonies (what old house doesn't have them!!), Virginia Bluebells, road lilies, poppies, and a rose bush. I don't know whether the roses will produce; they have not been maintained for so long. The girls and I transplanted several bluebells, taking some into our house in town and moving others to a spot where hopefully Josh won't run them over:)
Josh has also been doing some yard maintenance. He cut out the poison ivy around the corn crib, without suffering any effects! He brought in a load of rock for the driveway, so we won't cut as many ruts in the yard. Josh also leveled out the spot in the yard where the garage stood and cleaned up all the bricks and concrete from the foundation. He had the new mower out today at the house in town, just playing around. I will have to mark out where he can't mow so he doesn't destroy any of my flower treasures:) He also burned off the ditches and the lot to the west of the house. This helped make things look a little better.
Speaking of fire, we had an interesting night at the beginning of the month. Josh was burning lathe one evening. We have a pit by the corn crib where he has done most of the burning. He has had to be careful in choosing what times to burn because we have had a very windy spring. Josh had also moved the small garden shed out between the corn crib and the burn pile so that he could do some dirt work. On this particular evening, the girls and I were out with him. As we watched the fire, we noticed that there was some smoke on the shed. Josh started looking more closely and realized that the shingles were starting to smolder. He ran to get the skid loader and pushed the shed out of the way, but it was too late. So he went ahead and pushed the shed into the fire. It made for some really cool pictures, even if I am disappointed that my shed is gone!

On a sad note, we have had to create a pet burial ground. My cat, Butterball, died at the beginning of the month. He was 12 years old. Josh buried him and the girls and I are creating a marker.

And the Walls Came Down...

March was a very dusty, dirty month in our remodel. We spent the month tearing out the plaster in the house. The original plan was to start with the upstairs, then demolish the downstairs later on. The plan changed about halfway through when Josh started tearing out the downstairs bathroom. The month ended with all of the plaster in the house gone, except for one small section in the hallway.
Josh and a friend started on the upstairs the week before my Spring Break. Josh used a pry bar type of tool that quickly torn through the plaster and lathe. They would tear out one room at a time, then spend time sorting the lathe from the plaster. The lathe went out an upstairs window into the back of our old dump truck. The plaster had to be scooped into buckets and hauled to the upstairs porch. From there, Josh made a chute where the plaster could slide down to the trailer below. I think that Josh gave his friend, Lucas, quite a workout that week as bucket boy!
By the time Spring Break rolled around, he had the upstairs completely cleaned out. My job that week was to pull all of the nails that were left after the lathe was taken down and finish taking down any plaster that Josh missed. This was very tedious work, but it felt good when I could look at the upstairs and see that it was completely done.
While I worked upstairs, Josh spent the week removing all of the trim downstairs. That has definitely been his least favorite job so far. But he did really well; only one piece in the entire house was severely damaged, and we probably won't have to reuse that piece anyway. By the end of the week, he had the bathroom and two downstairs bedrooms torn down. I got the pleasure of helping scoop out those rooms!!
The week after Spring Break, the girls went to Grandma's, so Josh and I worked every night for several hours. This meant that we could tear out the mud room, hallway and kitchen. The mud room was somewhat difficult because of the height of the ceiling over the basement stairs. It made it harder to reach all of the nails that I had to pull, so Josh had to do some (standing on a ladder on steps over the basement was more than I could do). We had hoped that the kitchen cabinets would be salvageable, but they did not come off the walls very well so they went to the burn pile. The hallway was also difficult because of the stairway. Josh decided that, rather than dismantling the entire staircase, it would be easier to leave the small portion of plaster that butted up to it. So we have a small (4x4) section of plaster that will remain in the house. Josh plans on skim coating it to smooth it out. The dining room and living room were the last project. I still have to finish my nail pulling in there.
One other chore during this time was to move all of the trim out of the house and into our place in town. After Josh pulled the nails out of the trim, we loaded it up and hauled it in to be stored in the loft in our garage. This will make it more convenient for me this summer when I am refinishing it. We also brought in all of the doors (17 in all) and stored them in our basement.
This demolition process was hard work, but looking at the house now, it was definitely worth it. I can't wait to see where we head next!

Clearing the Land- Feb. 2009

From Briggs House Remodel

North Side of House, Post Cleanup
The month of February was spent cleaning up the property outside of the house. Very little had been done to the property for years. There were a few buildings that needed some work, as well as many trees that had to come down.
Besides the house, there were five outbuildings on the property when we purchased it: a garage, corn crib, granary, chicken coop, and tool shed. Some were in good shape, while others were falling in. Josh began the clean-up by tearing down the garage. It was a one car unit that was falling in on itself. It didn't take much to push it in and burn it. Underneath the garage we found a pit, a place where a person could stand under a car and change the oil. Apparently, the original owner enjoyed working on cars! While this was a cool feature for him, it is really just a big hole in the ground to me, a big hole that needs to be filled in before one of the girls decides to take a header into it!!
The corn crib is still in very good shape. We don't plan on doing anything with it right now. It will be used as storage. I do have plans for a Christmas wreath and maybe a barn quilt someday, though! The granary is also in good shape. Josh left it alone for the time being.
The tool shed was not in a great spot, so Josh drug it out of the way for now. I'm not sure if it will be kept or not. I could make good use of it for a potting shed. The chicken coop was in the way and falling apart, so Josh tore it down. The girls were a little disappointed, they had high hopes for chickens:)

From Briggs House Remodel

Spot where the garage sat, also view of tool shed (now moved)

From Briggs House Remodel

Corn Crib
The next project was tree removal. The lot to the west of the house was full of trees, many that were dead or fallen over. There were also a few trees closer to the house that were in the way or unappealing. So one very long weekend in February, Josh and couple of friends spent time cutting down trees, burning brush and cleaning up eighty years of farm "garbage". They cut anything that was rotten or had fallen over. This cleared quite a bit on the northwest corner of the property. We can see more of our neighbors now!
We also decided to take down the cedars that lined the west side of the house. The trees were planted as a wind break, at least 50 years ago. But they had grown to be about 40 feet tall with no branches for the first 20 feet. So they really didn't block much wind. They were also in the way for the septic system. Josh cut them down and gave the lumber to a friend. Hope he does something cool with it. There were also a few other small trees in the backyard that came down because of the septic system.

From Briggs House Remodel

House before cedar trees were cut (background)

From Briggs House Remodel

West Side After Trees Cleared
There was a lot of junk dumped around the place, most of it wire fencing. The guys spent many hours pulling up piles of wire and other metal scrap. They fought for 45 minutes to pull a tree stump that was surrounded by a huge roll of wire. By the time they were done, Josh had a dump wagon overflowing with scrap metal.
After he had all the trees down, Josh decided to have the stumps ground up. There ended up being 46 stumps! And that is not all of them; after the snowed and mud cleared, there are still several stumps that need to come out. The last outside project that Josh tackled was to take off the front steps. They were crumbling and with them gone, Josh could park the trailer right up next to the house. This will come in handy for the next phase in the project: plaster removal.

The First Phase, November 2008-January 2009

Even though we had not officially purchased the house yet, we got permission to begin working right away. Part of the reason for this was because someone decided to break into the house. They broke a couple of windows and kicked in the front door. The owner did not have time to fix things, so he called Josh. Josh and the girls went out and boarded up the front and side doors. Josh also wired in a light to give a little security.
Then the clean-up began. Josh started in the basement, which was completely full of ninety years worth of cans, boxes, furniture, you name it. He spent days down there, sorting and tossing until he had loaded the dump trailer several times over. He also had to take out the coal furnace, shovel out the leftover coal, and throw out the corn cobs that were used as fire starter.
Cleaning up the rest of the house didn't take as long as I thought it would. We cleaned up the downstairs first. This was mostly moving furniture into one room so that it would be out of the way and tossing the pieces that were in terrible shape. The upstairs took longer because it was completely full of junk. The porch room took an entire day by itself to clean out. We sorted through the stuff and found some interesting items, like a never used 48 star American flag!
We also went ahead and put in a new septic tank. But no plumbing has been hooked to the house yet. Then we needed a little heat, to keep the basement from heaving in the cold. We got an older furnace and made a big investment in a LP tank. Next came new electrical service to the property. All of these were just the jumping off point. The next step: demolition!!

From Briggs House Remodel

From Briggs House Remodel